1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to telecommunications and in particular to a method for handing over a mobile telephony device. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to mSCTP based handover of a mobile device between non-intersecting networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
The development of computerized information resources, such as interconnection of computer networks, allows users of data processing systems to link with servers within a network to access vast amounts of electronic information. Multiple types of computer networks have been developed that provide different types of security and access and operate at different speeds. For example, the internet, also referred to as an “internetwork”, is a set of computer networks, possibly dissimilar, joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from the sending network to the protocols used by the receiving network. When capitalized, the term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) suite of protocols.
One of the growing uses of the Internet is for communications. As the Internet and the Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN) intertwine for supporting voice transmission, the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) has been defined as an alternative to TCP to better support this type of communication. Specifically, SCTP supports transmission of PSTN signaling messages over IP networks.
As mobile communications become the norm, there is a push to integrate mobile communications with the Internet. Thus, a version of SCTP is being defined that includes a multihoming feature for supporting IP mobility. The mobile SCTP (mSCTP), defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), would purport to support the handover of mobile devices moving from one location to another. A limitation of the mSCTP specification is that it assumes the mobile devices will handover between two intersecting networks. In fact, it is often the case that a mobile device is handed over between two non-intersecting networks. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a method, system, and program for SCTP based handovers of mobile devices between two non-intersecting networks.